Moral of the story: ponzi scheme can not last forever. Bubble will burst, sooner or later.

8:23 am September 18, 2013
dmauch wrote :

Never has so much been written and talked about, so little.

8:23 am September 18, 2013
dmauch wrote :

Never has so much been written and talked about so little.

8:31 am September 18, 2013
There will be no taper or QE unwind wrote :

Not for years to come. TRILLIONS were lost, so TRILLIONS must be printed.

8:46 am September 18, 2013
Scott VanKuren wrote :

The biggest laugh of the entire article is that the Feds are projecting the economy to be back to normal by 2016. With the current course that the administration has charted, and the prospect of them adding additional burdens as time goes on, the only thing we have to look forward to for change is Obama himself leaving office, and that won’t be until 2017 if he leaves peacfully.

9:08 am September 18, 2013
Inquiry wrote :

It is my belief that the motive for the Treasury buying its own financial instruments – aka printing money – is that there were not enough customers – domestic or foreign – who were willing to buy the securities. Also, I am aware of the danger of countries – like China – holding our debt. But still am I right that if foreign currencies are used to pay for our securities isn’t that not as bad as printing money? So aren’t we in the situation where all actions are disadvantaeous

9:20 am September 18, 2013
TJ wrote :

The real message is that we’ve done nothing to fix the root causes of what created all these problems in the first place. So now we debate — should the Fed add monetary stimulus of 5% of GDP, or would 6% be better?

Let’s ask the right question — what is required so the Fed can get out of the monetary stimulus game?

Oops, sorry, that requires hard work and possibly sacrifice… better to just keep QE going.

9:22 am September 18, 2013
DW wrote :

If the citizenry really understood on a broad scale how QE has been on of the largest transfers of wealth in the history of the world from elderly people living on fixed incomes and people who save money to large corporations, they would be standing at the doors of the Fed with pitch forks and torches demanding Ben Bernanke’s head.

9:29 am September 18, 2013
C. J. Hall wrote :

The majority buyer of Treasury Bonds is the Fed, and will continue to be. Our debt (and unfunded commitments) is in my opinion well past the tipping point, and I doubt any big foreign investors (including foreign govts) are eager to buy more of our debt… as evidenced by the numbers – unless interest rates rise (to maybe 6-7%?) which would crash our ability to pay – so if we’d default, who would buy those 7% bonds?.

10:11 am September 18, 2013
jim murray wrote :

C.J. Hall is one of the most erudite posters around. Read his posting and the only follow up I can say to his question is — then taxes have to be raised! It’s the only way to pay for those bonds; alternatively, hope for the pie to get bigger as in the economy as taxed to generate the revenue needed,.

10:22 am September 18, 2013
GeorgeBMac wrote :

QE never did lower interest rates (at least not by any meaningful amount) — it merely added huge amounts of liquidity (largely to the emerging markets). But, as soon as Bernanke talked about a possibility of maybe a little tapering somewhere in the future, the media portrayed it as an attack on interest rates and “the market” gave a knee jerk reaction.
… it makes me wonder if that was orchestrated?

But, now that tapering is about to begin — either now or in the near future — the media seems to be backing off and stressing that rolling back a little of the QE liquidity will not affect the near zero interest rates the Fed has held onto for the past 5 years…
… So what changed since May?
…….. Could it be that Summers got fired before he got hired?

10:48 am September 18, 2013
press-flat wrote :

The big question is if the Fed buys less ….who buys more? …and at what rate?

I suspect that with capital in increasing demand throughout the world …especially in China… rates will be heading much higher.

10:51 am September 18, 2013
"QE never did lower interest rates"????? wrote :

In 2007 the 10-year was around 5%. In 2008, it was near 4%. The cumulative effect of all the QEs was to drive it down near 1.5% this Spring. It was only when Bernanke said he would “taper”, or begin the end of the QE that interest rates went back up, and still only to 3%.

10:54 am September 18, 2013
I agree, there will be no taper... wrote :

The FEd will continue with QE until the Fed is UNABLE to continue with QE. Then watch out!

11:02 am September 18, 2013
press-flat wrote :

When I was growing up they interrupted my cartoons at the movies to sell War Bonds….so how long before they are interrupting my football games to sell Survival Bonds ?

11:08 am September 18, 2013
Bernard wrote :

The stimulus is like giving a bum money to buy food when he’ll just get drunk. The market at 15000 proves this is the phoniest deal ever.

11:26 am September 18, 2013
John Smith wrote :

The Federal Reserve is a Private-for-Profit institution that owes its allegiance, loyalty and Obligation first & foremost, to its MEMBER BANKS, not YOU

11:28 am September 18, 2013
Northern wrote :

All you need to know is that the Federal Reserve has never been audited. Trillions spent and no accountability.

11:34 am September 18, 2013
NJS wrote :

If you grade how the Fed has done in its “stated” missions these past 100 years, then you will see that it has failed miserably on all counts. Why this “esteemed institution” still exists is already fraudulent. This illegal, private, international banking cartel is not part of the US Government, and is responsible for the greatest perpetration upon mankind – the stealing of tens of trillions of dollars from the American people. If the US Government would, for once, actually defend our nation against all enemies, both domestic and foreign, then it would END the FED once and for all!

11:40 am September 18, 2013
RogerB34 wrote :

Wall Street and the housing market in anguish over a Fed print decision.
It emphasizes economic weakness.
Stop printing and keep bank to bank interest rates at zero and the stock market will tank along with the anemic economy.

11:41 am September 18, 2013
Brian Jones wrote :

The Fed is a terrible corrupt part of this government, that has showered the elite rich in cash for over 4 years straight at the average working Americans expense. QE should be considered a felony committed on Americans along with the economy. Stealing savings account interest income from seniors and the working poor along with driving up fuel, food, every item a consumer needs, just to make the rich elite richer is plain evil.

11:45 am September 18, 2013
Anonymous wrote :

If you want to bring down the Dictator and the Fed, stop anymore debt purchases, use cash/write checks, and watch how fast this debt based economy/Fascist gov’t collapses. It’s your duty to resist

12:04 pm September 18, 2013
Patriot games wrote :

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered…I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies… The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.” Thomas Jefferson

12:06 pm September 18, 2013
The Undertaker wrote :

it looks like all my children are on this blog. A bright bunch I have to admit. I’m so proud!

12:10 pm September 18, 2013
PG wrote :

Jefferson and Madison were wise men. A central bank was a bad idea then as well as now. One must keep in mind that men are basically evil, like it or not. It is not wise to give any bank that much control over your country’s money supply. They can make slaves out of you. President Lincoln said that he had two enemies, one was the confederacy, the other was the bankers, of the two, the bankers were his worst enemy. He was a wise man too. Our federal reserve is a good example. It is not federal, and it has no reserves. It has made slaves out of us.

12:16 pm September 18, 2013
Andrew Jackson wrote :

“The Bank is trying to kill me, but I will kill it.”
– President Andrew Jackson

President Andrew Jackson of Tennessee was the 7th President of the United States. Jackson’s efforts to shut down the central bank were believed to have resulted in an attempt on his life. After he recovered from the assassination attempt, Jackson redoubled his efforts to shut down the central bank and was successful.

From Wikipedia:

The Second Bank of the United States was authorized for a twenty year period during James Madison’s tenure in 1816. As President, Jackson worked to rescind the bank’s federal charter. In Jackson’s veto message the bank needed to be abolished because:
It concentrated the nation’s financial strength in a single institution.
It exposed the government to control by foreign interests.
It served mainly to make the rich richer.
It exercised too much control over members of Congress.
It favored northeastern states over southern and western states.

Following Jefferson, Jackson supported an “a

2:48 pm September 18, 2013

Stockbroker56 wrote:

The US is not going to let the interest rates on bonds to go up, making it more expensive for the US government to borrow. Cutting back on bond buying program is not going to happen for the next 1 to 3 years. The US dollar is losing its share as reserve currency every year. The US government "must" borrow from foreigners every year to pay for its huge trade and budget deficits. No end is in sight.

2:50 pm September 18, 2013

F. Obama wrote:

That which cannot go on forever --- will stop.

Imagine where Obama would be today if rates were market set. Bread lines anyone?

2:53 pm September 18, 2013

Ekkiot Ness wrote:

Bernanke's picture should be on every post office in the country.

2:54 pm September 18, 2013

Tea Party wrote:

What a tool of corruption Bernanke and his FED henchmen are.

2:55 pm September 18, 2013

Dr, Printer wrote:

More pecuniary cocaine for the evil ones!

2:57 pm September 18, 2013

Tiny Tim wrote:

God help us all.

2:59 pm September 18, 2013

Mort Pearlman wrote:

Listening to Bernanke makes me realize he must think we are really dumb.

3:11 pm September 18, 2013

cparjb wrote:

so the gdp is revised down from 2.6% to 2% and the market hits all time highs, anybody see something wrong with this picture???

all these rounds of quantitative easing and they project gdp growth down to 2%, clearly QE is not working and so what do they do? keep on pumping????

3:13 pm September 18, 2013

Pennsylvania Farmer wrote:

But Bernake said that there are a lot of academic papers that say that it should be working. What else do you need.

3:18 pm September 18, 2013

Bernie Swartz wrote:

lol...what a fake economy we have. The stock market driven merely by government printing of money.

3:22 pm September 18, 2013

Orphan Annie wrote:

The fed believes what it wants to believe. But the WSJ still reports their extremely predictable moves as if they were a big surprise. The only surprise here is that the older generation hasn't arisen and put its foot down. Maybe the next election....

3:22 pm September 18, 2013

Total graft wrote:

The stock market is being propped up by all this easy money. That's why it rallied today when it was announced that QE would continue as normal. Interest rates are being suppressed so the only game in town is the stock market. I knew the FED was looking to continue the madness. Mortgage rates cannot go up or all bets are off. They can fake the other numbers all they want. Interest rates are going to eventually kill them though as is inflation.

3:24 pm September 18, 2013

Sergeant Ermey wrote:

Bernanke has done what no foreign army ever could

3:26 pm September 18, 2013

lbhthink wrote:

The stock market is hitting new highs ONLY because of the Fed's easy money policy. Since revisions in GDP growth continue to be downgraded this slowness will effect corporate revenue and earnings growth so look for more downward revisions in earnings for the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2013 and lowering of estimates for 2014. Once again with these changes stock valuations will become expensive and very high risk. It is beginning to be a fools game.

3:27 pm September 18, 2013

This is, and always been, about government... wrote:

first, last, and always. The top people at Gosbank (er, the Fed) made their choice in 2007, and the choice was the public sector over private sector. Within the private sector, the choice was Wall Street over Main Street, but in Gosbank's (er, the Fed's) calculus, both rate beneath the government. So Gosbank (er, the Fed) keeps rates low on government debt but does everything possible to keep the private sector subdued. The very last thing Gosbank (er, the Fed) wants is for private credit demand to grow because of the economy doing better, because higher private credit demand would push up interest rates and hence boost the government's debt expense..

3:34 pm September 18, 2013

Old Sarge wrote:

Today made me sick. Such lies, I didn't fight in WW2 for this.

3:35 pm September 18, 2013

Randy wrote:

This is irrational, pure and simple. We need to put the Fed on a 12 step program.

Step number 1, I have a problem printing money and keeping interest rates artificially at zero, and am powerless to stop.

3:35 pm September 18, 2013

Ben is political and so is the Federal Reserve wrote:

The big "takeaway" should be that Ben considers and stated not raising the debt limit to be a "failure".
In the context of "printing money" and managing the nature's money supply, the debt limit resolution by another branch of government should be mere date to the Political Ben Bernanke.

Clearly it is not to Benny. Words have meaning. The Federal Reserve has now been officially and undeniably "politicized".

3:43 pm September 18, 2013

Dialectic wrote:

Summers was a very smart guy, he wanted nothing of what is to come soon.

3:43 pm September 18, 2013

Nomoretalk wrote:

I'm sorry...I am very new to this as I just recently put a contract to buy my first house. What rates are they talking about stayin at the 2% range?

3:45 pm September 18, 2013

Bill Detwiler wrote:

Despicable!

3:48 pm September 18, 2013

Bill Robbins wrote:

The take away is obvious: There has been no real recovery, and the economy mus remain on life support. The heart keeps beating, but the brain is dead.

3:57 pm September 18, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

Need to start tapering soon. I have sympathy for those young and unemployed but four years into a recovery is past time to slow down the stimulus. Keynesian economics calls for reducing stimulus in a recovery.

4:19 pm September 18, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

This is the greatest fraud in the history of mankind.

4:29 pm September 18, 2013

Terence wrote:

It all boils down to Bernake saying that the economy would be in recession without continuing QE stimulation until maybe 2016 at which time, if things better, the Fed hopes to withdraw QE stimulation.

Then with all those bonds bought up by the Fed largely unsellable at other than untenable rates, they will simply monetize it.

What can possibly be wrong with that?

Everything!

5:01 pm September 18, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

This will end in pitchforks and torches.

That's the only thing for certain.

5:36 pm September 18, 2013

UhOh wrote:

This fraud called QE is something that would have made even Mr Ponzi blush.

6:00 pm September 18, 2013

Miner Mick wrote:

Gold went crazy today.

6:52 pm September 18, 2013

anonymous wrote:

i see a very bright, hugely compensated position for bernanke at a hedge fund or perhaps goldman sachs following in the footsteps of greenspan the last fed head that did not see a bubble coming amazing how we rant on about iran when the real terrorists are destroying the american and european economies to enrich themselves and then throw the public a bone by funding a museum,with their name in lights of course; unbelievably they are getting away with it; even worse we have been subjected to the drivel in the journal about the continued generosity of this dreck in their years post crisis: pathetic..

2:44 am September 19, 2013

Kay wrote:

Now is the time to start believing in God for only he can save America.
Fed don't seem to be in touch with reality. They can take major meaningful decision only when things go out of control and have to take emergency measures. Greenspan cutting rates in Jan 2001, then Bernanke's rate cut in Jan 2008 prove it.
Bernanke underestimated financial crisis then and now he thinks that he has a perfect timetable for next three years. He is already confused and does not know what to do as is evident from his statements since May. Today's action also proves it. When almost all economists are of view to start tapering, Bernanke thinks otherwise. What if he is wrong again?

1:23 pm December 1, 2013

Anonymous wrote:

Kay your way off base and out of touch with reality.

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